Taxi to Accra Beach

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

Just returned from the Celebrity Summit and another great time at Accra/Rockley Beach. Taxis asking $7.50 US for one way trip or $15 round trip per person to Accra. So for our family of 6, unfortunately $45 each way. It was about a 15-20 min trip mostly because of traffic(and the multiple stops) as you have to traverse downtown Bridgetown.

 

Total chaos in the taxi area and REALLY aggressive taxi drivers trying to get business. At one point, I had 2 drivers pulling on my arms to convince me to come with them. No negotiating price at the port but I would suggest just agreeing to a one way fare as there are plenty of taxis available at the beach for return ride and I suspect price is more negotiable. Unfortunately, even after I told our driver we would find our own way back to the ship, he hunted us down on the beach that afternoon and got my wife to agree to drive us back to the ship for the same price while I was out in the ocean with the kids:(

 

What I find really annoying and representing complete greed(not unique to the taxis in Barbados but all over the Caribbean), is filling the taxi van with people going to different locations and still expecting a full fare from everyone. I finally chose a taxi as it looked nearly full and appeared to be ready to leave. After the 6 of us get in, the driver suddenly disappears for 10 min leaving us wondering what's going on. He finally reappears with 2 more people that we squeeze onto the temporary fold down seats and we finally go. He then make a stop at the Boat Yard to drop off half the van, takes us to Accra, and there are 2 more on the van heading to Dover Beach. On the way back, he again stops at the Boat Yard and leaves us all sitting in the doubleparked running van as he runs inside the place to drag his other customers out. Totaly shady operation. In retrospect, we should have got out of the van at the start when he disappeared. If he saw everyone leaving, he would have got his butt back in the van and got us to our destinations as promised. We have experienced this in multiple islands and every time it happens, it makes we want to make use of the cheaper public transportation options especially if the service is going to be this poor. I certainly have no guilt in skipping adding a tip when the drivers pull this bs.

 

Sorry for the rant, but I had to get this off my chest.

[Aplmac]

No need to apologize!

 

This is a problem needs to be sorted out by local authorities.

 

.

[Pricetag]

When we were there last year, we had the same issue with multiple drop-offs, etc. We arranged for our driver to pick us up at a certain time. We waited 30-40 minutes then were in fear of missing the ship so we starting hiking it back. It's not a short walk. We came upon a taxi (van) and the man was just sitting there. We asked him if he was waiting on a party of people and he said "no". We told him we would pay him extra to get us back to the port. He relunctantly agreed, but was very nice about it. When we got close to port we told him he could just drop us off so he didn't have to deal with the chaos inside the gate. He appreciated that very much.

 

So, FYI, don't wait TOO long if you are expecting a pick up. Have a bar call a taxi for you.

 

Lesson learned.

[tartanexile81]

Or take the bus. :) No pressure!